Short Story: The UAlbany volleyball team, using 11 team blocks, defeated Binghamton in four sets to begin America East play with a victory.

Key Stats:

UAlbany: Chloe Evering had a team-high 12 kills, adding four digs. Danielle Tedesco had four kills and six blocks while Kelly Cameron had a near double double off 30 assists, nine digs, four kills and four total blocks.

Binghamton: Kristella Morina hit .526 with 11 kills and three blocks while Lexi LaGoy hit .409 for 11 kills and two blocks.

As a team, UAlbany had 11 team blocks, with at least seven Great Danes contributing. Binghamton had eight aces on serving.

Key Situations:

UAlbany had four runs of at least 3-0 in the first set and never trailed after leading 2-1.

UAlbany rallied from down 6-1 early in set two off the serving of Nicole Otero and Nina Holmes, taking 10 points out of 11 en route to a 25-20 set two win.

Down 19-15 in set four, UAlbany came back with late kills from Chloe Evering and Tatiana Tiangco to win set four 25-23.

Quote: “I’m proud of the way that we battled when we needed to tonight. The whole week, we’ve been working on staying tough through a whole match, and we did a much better job than the last few weeks. Our outsides gave us some positive production when needed; Courtney O’Connell and Danielle Tedesco did a good job adapting to the Binghamton offense. We also had some great help from people coming in off the bench; Larissa Focosi added some critical defense in set four, and Aquabata Okenwa added some much needed blocking. Overall, it was a great team effort.” – UAlbany head coach MJ Engstrom.

Recap: The UAlbany volleyball team opened America East play with a four-set victory over SUNY rival Binghamton on Friday night.

A Chloe Lamb kill sparked an early 4-0 run to put UAlbany up 6-2 in set one. At 9-8, a 4-0 run, sandwiched by two Chloe Evering kills, made it 13-8 UAlbany. Later, UAlbany led 20-12 off kills from Danielle Tedesco and Tatiana Tiangco. Evering ended the game with two kills for a 25-17 UAlbany set one win.

Binghamton led 6-1 after two Gabby Alicea aces, later going up 11-5. Following exchanges to 12-7, Nina Holmes served UAlbany to a tie at 12-12. After a Binghamton kill, Nicole Otero served UAlbany to a 17-13 advantage. Binghamton got back to within one at 19-18, but UAlbany held the lead, using two more Evering kills to win 25-20 and take a 2-0 lead.

The Bearcats had an early 5-0 run to lead 9-2 in the third set. A pair of Evering kills helped UAlbany get within three, but Binghamton got 11 of the next 13 points for a 12-point advantage, eventually giving the visitors a 25-14 win in set three.

The fourth set started back and back with streaks. Four blocks by Tedesco led UAlbany to go up 15-13. Binghamton got back up with six points in a row to go up 19-15. A quick 3-0 UAlbany run brought the Great Danes within one. At 21-20, Aquabata Okenwa buried a kill to tie the set, then later, Evering and Tiangco kills gave UAlbany a 23-22 advantage. Kristella Morina notched a kill to tie the set. After a Binghamton service error, Tiangco finished the game with a kill to give UAlbany a 25-23 set four victory and match win.

Next week, UAlbany plays two America East matches at home, hosting the reigning league champion New Hampshire on Friday, September 29th at 7 p.m.